Digital comic editor, method and non-transitory computer-readable medium

ABSTRACT

A digital comic editor comprising a speech bubble region addition device configured to add a new piece of speech bubble region information to the position indicated by the indication device, a speech bubble region deletion device configured to delete the speech bubble region information from the position indicated by the indication device, and an editing device configured to update the speech bubble region information included in the information file based on the speech bubble region information added by the speech bubble region addition device and the speech bubble region information deleted by the speech bubble region deletion device.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a digital comic editor, a method and anon-transitory computer-readable medium, particularly relates to an artto digitize comic contents.

2. Description of the Related Art

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-22269 discloses anapparatus which automatically detects speech bubbles from an image dataof a comic. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-22269 alsodiscloses an art which, when a speech bubble cannot be detected due to amissing portion of a border line in a speech bubble, detects the speechbubble by correcting the image data so as to eliminate the defect of theborder line; and an art which draws a virtual extension line from apoint where an outline (profile line) of a speech bubble is broken, andin which when the virtual extension line overlaps with the profile line,the profile line is determined as continuous, and thus, the speechbubble is detected automatically.

Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-22269 disclosesan art which recognizes characters within a range of a speech bubble tothereby recognize a text.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-78923 discloses a comicsediting support device which allows a user to attach a speech bubble ata desired position. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-78923also discloses an art which inserts a text in a speech bubble, and whenthe text runs off the speech bubble, increases the region of the speechbubble.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

However, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-22269 disclosesonly a case where a speech bubble cannot be detected due to the missingportion of the border line in the speech bubble as a recovery methodwhen a speech bubble cannot be detected. When a speech bubble cannot bedetected due to another cause or when a speech bubble (speech bubbleregion) which is automatically detected is different from the speechbubble in an original content, the art cannot increase the speech bubbleregion or edit the speech bubble so as to be identical to the speechbubble in the original content.

The comics editing support device disclosed in Japanese PatentApplication Laid-Open No. 2004-78923 inserts a speech bubble and words.However, the comics editing support device cannot be applied to a casewhere comic content is digitized.

The present invention has been proposed in view of the abovecircumstances. An object of the invention is to provide a digital comiceditor, a method and a non-transitory computer-readable medium that,when digitizing a comic content, speech bubbles and texts and the likeas a result of automatic detection can be checked, and the speechbubbles, texts and the like as the detection result can be easily editedbased on the check result.

In order to achieve the above object, a digital comic editor accordingto an aspect of the invention includes a data acquisition deviceconfigured to acquires a piece of master data of a digital comic, themaster data including: an image file corresponding to each page of thecomic, the image file having a high resolution image of the entire page,and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages of thecomic, the information file having described therein a piece of speechbubble information including a piece of speech bubble region informationrepresenting regions of speech bubbles for containing dialogs ofcharacters in the image; a display control device configured to controla display device to display an image thereon based on the image file inthe master data acquired by the data acquisition device and to displayan image representing speech bubble regions based on the speech bubbleregion information included in the information file in the master datawhile superimposing the same on the image based on the image file; anindication device configured to indicate a position on the imagedisplayed on the display device; a speech bubble region addition deviceconfigured to add a new piece of speech bubble region information to theposition indicated by the indication device; a speech bubble regiondeletion device configured to delete the speech bubble regioninformation from the position indicated by the indication device; and anediting device configured to update the speech bubble region informationincluded in the information file based on the speech bubble regioninformation added by the speech bubble region addition device and thespeech bubble region information deleted by the speech bubble regiondeletion device.

According to an aspect of the invention, the master data of a digitalcomic, which includes an image file corresponding to each page of thecomic, the image file having a high resolution image of the entire page,and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages of thecomic, the information file having described therein a piece of speechbubble information including a piece of speech bubble region informationrepresenting regions of speech bubbles for containing dialogs ofcharacters in the image, can be appropriately edited. In particular, thedetection result of the speech bubbles can be modified by adding ordeleting the speech bubble region information. With this, the speechbubble information included in the information file can be edited(updated). That is, an editor is allowed to visually view an imagerepresenting a speech bubble region which is displayed beingsuperimposed on an image displayed on the display device to therebycheck the present speech bubble region extraction result. Whenperforming the editing to add or delete the speech bubble, aninstruction to add a new speech bubble to a position indicated by theindication device or an instruction to delete a speech bubble at aposition indicated by the indication device is given; thereby the speechbubble region information can be easily added or deleted. The frameregion information included in the information file is updated based onthe added or deleted speech bubble region information.

The digital comic editor according to another aspect of the inventionfurther includes a speech bubble region detection device configured todetect a piece of closed region information for enclosing a periphery ofthe position indicated by the indication device as a piece of speechbubble region information, wherein the display control device controlsto display an image representing the speech bubble region based on thespeech bubble region information detected by the speech bubble regiondetection device while superimposing the same on the image based on theimage file, and the speech bubble region addition device adds the speechbubble region information detected by the speech bubble region detectiondevice.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the speech bubble region information may be a piece of vectordata representing an outer periphery edge of the speech bubble region ora piece of mask data representing the speech bubble region.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the display control device controls to display an image ofcovered over speech bubble regions or an image drawn with the outerperiphery edge of the speech bubble regions based on the speech bubbleregion information. With this, the speech bubble region can bedistinguished from the others.

The digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention further includes an image acquisition device configured toacquire an image file having a high resolution image of the entire page;a speech bubble region extraction device configured to analyze the imageof the entire page acquired by the image acquisition device andautomatically extracts the speech bubble regions in the image; aninformation file creation device configured to create an informationfile having described therein the speech bubble information whichincludes a piece of speech bubble region information representing aspeech bubble region extracted by the speech bubble region extractiondevice; and a master data creation device configured to create a pieceof master data of the digital comic, the master data including: an imagefile acquired by the image acquisition device for each page of thecomic; and an information file corresponding to each page or all pagesof the comic, which is created by the information file creation device,wherein the data acquisition device acquires a piece of master datacreated by the master data creation device.

To input the information or the like of every speech bubble region, anenormous workload is required. By automatically creating the masterdata, the master data can be created efficiently. When the master datais created automatically, some errors may exist in the speech bubbleinformation described in the information file. According to theinvention, erroneous speech bubble information can be easily modified.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the speech bubble region extraction device includes a textdetection device configured to detect texts in the image and detectsclosed regions enclosing the periphery of the texts detected by the textdetection device as the speech bubble region. With this, erroneousdetection of the speech bubble region is prevented.

A digital comic editor according to an aspect of the invention includesa data acquisition device configured to acquires a piece of master dataof a digital comic, the master data including an image filecorresponding to each page of the comic, the image file having a highresolution image of the entire page, and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, the informationfile having described therein a piece of text region informationrepresenting text regions in the comic; a display control deviceconfigured to control display device to display an image thereon basedon the image file in the master data acquired by the data acquisitiondevice and to display an image representing text regions based on thetext region information included in the information file in the masterdata while superimposing the same on the image based on the image file;an indication device configured to indicate a position on the imagedisplayed on the display device; a text region addition deviceconfigured to add a new piece of text region information to the positionindicated by the indication device; a text region deletion deviceconfigured to delete the text region information from the positionindicated by the indication device; and an editing device configured toupdate the text region information included in the information filebased on the text region information added by the text region additiondevice and the text region information deleted by the text regiondeletion device.

According to an aspect of the invention, the master data of a digitalcomic, which includes an image file corresponding to each page of thecomic, the image file having a high resolution image of the entire page,and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages of thecomic, the information file having described therein the text regioninformation representing the text regions of the comic, can beappropriately edited. In particular, the text region is modified byadding or deleting the text region. With this, the text regioninformation included in the information file can be edited (updated).That is, an editor is allowed to visually view an image representing thetext region which is displayed being superimposed on an image displayedon the display device to thereby check the present text regionextraction result. When performing the editing to add or delete the textregion, an instruction to add a the new text region to a positionindicated by the indication device or an instruction to delete a textregion at a position indicated by the indication device is given;thereby the text region information can be easily added or deleted. Thetext region information included in the information file is updatedbased on the added or deleted text region information.

The digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention further includes a text detection device configured to detecta text adjacent to a position indicated by the indication device; and atext region detection device configured to detect a piece of regioninformation for enclosing a periphery of the text detected by the textdetection device as a piece of text region information, wherein thedisplay control device controls to display an image representing thetext region based on the text region information detected by the textregion detection device while superimposing the same on the image basedon the image file, and the text region addition device adds the textregion information detected by the text region detection device.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the text region information may be a piece of coordinate datarepresenting each vertex on an outer periphery edge of a polygonal shapein the text region, a piece of vector data representing the outerperiphery edge of the text region or a mask data representing the textregion.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the display control device controls to display an image inwhich the text region is translucently covered over or an image in whichthe outer periphery edge of the text region is drawn based on the textregion information. With this, the text region can be identified.

The digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention further includes an image acquisition device configured toacquire an image file having a high resolution image of the entire page;a text region extraction device configured to analyze the image of theentire page acquired by the image acquisition device and automaticallyextracts the text regions in the image; an information file creationdevice configured to create an information file having described thereinthe text region information representing the text region extracted bythe text region extraction device; and a master data creation deviceconfigured to create a piece of master data of the digital comic, themaster data including: an image file acquired by the image acquisitiondevice for each page of the comic; and an information file correspondingto each page or all pages of the comic, which is created by theinformation file creation device, wherein the data acquisition deviceacquires a piece of master data created by the master data creationdevice.

To input the information or the like of every information of the textregions, an enormous workload is required. By automatically creating themaster data, the master data can be created efficiently. When the masterdata is created automatically, some errors may exist in the textinformation described in the information file. According to theinvention, erroneous text region information can be easily modified.

A digital comic editor according to an aspect of the invention includesa data acquisition device configured to acquire a piece of master dataof a digital comic, the master data including: an image filecorresponding to each page of the comic, the image file having a highresolution image of the entire page, and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, the informationfile having described therein a piece of region of interest informationrepresenting regions of interest in the comic; a display control deviceconfigured to control display device to display an image thereon basedon the image file in the master data acquired by the data acquisitiondevice and to display an image representing a region of interest basedon the region of interest information included in the information filein the master data while superimposing the same on the image based onthe image file; an indication device configured to indicate a positionon the image displayed on the display device; a region of interestaddition device configured to add a new piece of region of interestinformation to the position indicated by the indication device; a regionof interest deletion device configured to delete the region of interestinformation from the position indicated by the indication device; and anediting device configured to update a piece of region of interestinformation included in the information file based on the region ofinterest information added by the region of interest addition device andthe region of interest information deleted by the region of interestdeletion device.

According to an aspect of the invention, the master data of a digitalcomic, which includes an image file corresponding to each page of thecomic, the image file having a high resolution image of the entire page,and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages of thecomic, the information file having described therein a piece of regionof interest information representing regions of interest in the comiccan be appropriately edited. In particular, the region of interest ismodified by adding or deleting the region of interest information. Withthis, the region of interest information included in the informationfile can be edited (updated). That is, an editor is allowed to visuallyview an image representing the region of interest which is displayedbeing superimposed on an image displayed on the display device tothereby check the present region of interest extraction result. Whenperforming the editing to add or delete the region of interest, aninstruction to add a region of interest to a position indicated by theindication device or an instruction to delete a region of interest at aposition indicated by the indication device is given; thereby the regionof interest information can be easily added or deleted. The region ofinterest information included in the information file is updated basedon the added or deleted region of interest information.

The digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention further includes region of interest detection device whichincludes character detection device for detecting characters adjacent toa position indicated by the indication device and detects a piece ofregion information including the characters as the region of interestinformation, wherein the display control device controls to display animage representing the region of interest based on the region ofinterest information detected by the region of interest detection devicewhile superimposing the same on the image, the region of interestaddition device adds the region of interest information detected by theregion of interest detection device. With this, the character is alsoincluded in the region of interest. The character is not limited to aperson, but various forms such as an animal, a robot are conceivable.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the character may be a face and the character detectiondevice may be face detection device. With this, a person may be used asa character.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the region of interest information may be a piece ofcoordinate data representing each vertex on an outer periphery edge ofthe polygonal shape in the region of interest, a piece of vector datarepresenting the outer periphery edge of the region of interest or apiece of mask data representing the region.

In the digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention, the display control device controls to display an image inwhich the region of interest is translucently covered over or an imagein which the outer periphery edge of the region of interest is drawnbased on the region of interest information. With this, the region ofinterest is distinguished from other regions.

The digital comic editor according to yet another aspect of theinvention further includes an image acquisition device configured toacquire an image file having a high resolution image of the entire page;a region of interest extraction device configured to analyze the imageof the entire page acquired by the image acquisition device andautomatically extracts the regions of interest in the image; informationfile creation device configured to create an information file havingdescribed therein the region of interest information representing theregion of interest extracted by the region of interest extractiondevice; and a master data creation device configured to create a pieceof master data of the digital comic, the master data including: an imagefile acquired by the image acquisition device for each page of thecomic; and an information file corresponding to each page or all pagesof the comic, which is created by the information file creation device,wherein the data acquisition device acquires a piece of master datacreated by the master data creation device.

To input the information or the like of every information of theinterest regions, an enormous workload is required. By automaticallycreating the master data, the master data can be created efficiently.When the master data is created automatically, some errors may exist inthe region of interest information described in the information file.According to the invention, erroneous region of interest information canbe easily modified.

A digital comic editing method according to yet another aspect of theinvention includes a data acquisition step acquiring a piece of masterdata of a digital comic, the master data including: an image filecorresponding to each page of the comic, the image file having a highresolution image of the entire page, and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, the informationfile having described therein a piece of text region informationrepresenting text regions of the comic; a display control stepcontrolling a display device to display an image thereon based on theimage file in the master data acquired in the data acquisition step andto display an image representing a speech bubble region based on thespeech bubble region information included in the information file in themaster data while superimposing the same on the image based on the imagefile; an indication step indicating a position on the image displayed onthe display device; a speech bubble region addition step adding a newpiece of speech bubble region information to a position indicated in theindication step; a speech bubble region deletion step deleting thespeech bubble region information from the position indicated in theindication step; and an editing step updating the speech bubble regioninformation included in the information file based on the speech bubbleregion information added in the speech bubble region addition step andthe speech bubble region information deleted in the speech bubble regiondeletion step.

A digital comic editing method according to yet another aspect of theinvention includes a data acquisition step acquiring a piece of masterdata of a digital comic, the master data including: an image filecorresponding to each page of the comic, the image file having a highresolution image of the entire page, and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, the informationfile having described therein a piece of region of interest informationrepresenting regions of interest of the comic; a display control stepcontrolling a display device to display an image thereon based on theimage file in the master data acquired in the data acquisition step andto display an image representing a text region based on the text regioninformation included in the information file in the master data whilesuperimposing the same on the image based on the image file; anindication step indicating a position on the image displayed on thedisplay device; a text region addition step adding a new piece of textregion information to a position indicated in the indication step; atext region deletion step deleting the text region information from theposition indicated in the indication step; and an editing step updatingthe text region information included in the information file based onthe text region information added in the text region addition step andthe text region information deleted in the text region deletion step.

A digital comic editing method according to yet another aspect of theinvention includes a data acquisition step acquiring a piece of masterdata of a digital comic, the master data including: an image file ofeach page of the comic having high resolution image of the entire page,and an information file having described therein a region of interestinformation representing regions of interest of the comic; a displaycontrol step controlling a display device, to display an image thereonbased on the image file in the master data acquired in the dataacquisition step and to display an image representing a region ofinterest based on the region of interest information included in theinformation file in the master data while superimposing the same on theimage based on the image file; an indication step indicating a positionon the image displayed on the display device; a region of interestaddition step that adds a new piece of region of interest information toa position indicated in the indication step; a region of interestdeletion step deleting the region of interest information from theposition indicated in the indication step; an editing step updating apiece of region of interest information included in the information filebased on the region of interest information added in the region ofinterest addition step and the region of interest information deleted inthe region of interest deletion step.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a digital comicediting program according to yet another aspect of the invention is anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing a digital comic editingprogram causing a computer to execute: a data acquisition step toacquire a piece of master data of a digital comic, the master dataincluding: an image file corresponding to each page of the comic, theimage file having a high resolution image of the entire page, and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,the information file having described therein a piece of speech bubbleinformation including a piece of speech bubble region informationrepresenting regions of speech bubbles for containing dialogs ofcharacters in the image; a display control step to control displaydevice to display an image thereon based on the image file in the masterdata acquired by the data acquisition step and to display an imagerepresenting a speech bubble region based on the speech bubble regioninformation included in the information file in the master data whilesuperimposing the same on the image based on the image file; anindication step to indicate a position on the image displayed on thedisplay device; a speech bubble region addition step to add a new pieceof speech bubble region information to a position indicated by theindication step; a speech bubble region deletion step to delete thespeech bubble region information from the position indicated by theindication step; and an editing step to update the speech bubble regioninformation included in the information file based on the speech bubbleregion information added by the speech bubble region addition step andthe speech bubble region information deleted by the speech bubble regiondeletion step.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a digital comicediting program according to yet another aspect of the invention is anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing a digital comic editingprogram causing a computer to achieve: a data acquisition step toacquire a piece of master data of a digital comic, the master dataincluding: an image file corresponding to each page of the comic, theimage file having a high resolution image of the entire page, and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,the information file having described therein a piece of text regioninformation representing a text region of the comic; a display controlstep to control display device to display an image thereon based on theimage file in the master data acquired by the data acquisition step andto display an image representing a text region based on the text regioninformation included in the information file in the master data whilesuperimposing the same on the image based on the image file; anindication step to indicate a position on the image displayed on thedisplay device; a text region addition step to add a new piece of textregion information to a position indicated by the indication step; atext region deletion step to delete the text region information from theposition indicated by the indication step; and an editing step to updatethe text region information included in the information file based onthe text region information added by the text region addition step andthe text region information deleted by the text region deletion step.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a digital comicediting program according to yet another aspect of the invention is anon-transitory computer-readable medium storing a digital comic editingprogram causing a computer to achieve: a data acquisition step toacquire a piece of master data of a digital comic, the master dataincluding: an image file corresponding to each page of the comic, theimage file having a high resolution image of the entire page, and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,the information file having described therein a piece of region ofinterest information representing a region of interest of the comic; adisplay control step to control display device to display an imagethereon based on the image file in the master data acquired by the dataacquisition step and to display an image representing a region ofinterest based on the region of interest information included in theinformation file in the master data while superimposing the same on theimage based on the image file; an indication step to indicate a positionon the image displayed on the display device; a region of interestaddition step to add a new piece of region of interest information to aposition indicated by the indication step; a region of interest deletionstep to delete the region of interest information from the positionindicated by the indication step; and an editing step to update a pieceof region of interest information included in the information file basedon the region of interest information added by the region of interestaddition step and the region of interest information deleted by theregion of interest deletion step.

According to the invention, when digitizing a comic content, anautomatic detection result of frames can be checked, and based on thecheck result, the automatic detection result of frames can be easilyedited.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a content delivery systemaccording to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of master data creation;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a content image;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a monitor display;

FIG. 5 illustrates a result of frames which are automatically detectedfrom a content image;

FIG. 6 illustrates a modification result of the frame detection resultshown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 illustrates a result of frames which are automatically detectedfrom the content image;

FIG. 8 illustrates a modification result of the frame detection resultshown in FIG. 7;

FIG. 9 illustrates a modification of a frame boundary line;

FIG. 10 illustrates a result of speech bubbles which are automaticallyextracted from the content image;

FIG. 11 illustrates a modification of the speech bubble extractionresult shown in FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 illustrates a result of the speech bubbles which areautomatically extracted from the content image;

FIG. 13 illustrates a modification of the speech bubble extractionresult shown in FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 illustrates a result of speech bubbles which are automaticallyextracted from the content image;

FIG. 15 illustrates an extraction of a speech bubble;

FIG. 16 illustrates an extraction of the speech bubble;

FIG. 17 illustrates an extraction of the speech bubble;

FIG. 18 illustrates an extraction of the speech bubble;

FIG. 19 illustrates an extraction of the speech bubble;

FIG. 20 illustrates a result of texts which are automatically extractedfrom the content image;

FIG. 21 illustrates a modification of the text extraction result shownin FIG. 20;

FIG. 22 illustrates a result of regions of interest which areautomatically extracted from the content image;

FIG. 23 illustrates a modification of the region of an interestextraction result shown in FIG. 20;

FIG. 24 illustrates pairing of the speech bubbles and the regions ofinterest;

FIG. 25 illustrates pairing of the speech bubbles and the regions ofinterest;

FIG. 26 is a frame format of a structure of an information file;

FIG. 27 is an example of a monitor screen when editing master data;

FIG. 28 is an example of the monitor screen when editing master data;

FIG. 29 is an example of the monitor screen when editing master data;and

FIG. 30 is an example of a preview screen.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

Embodiments of a digital comic editor, a method and a non-transitorycomputer-readable medium according to the invention will be describedbelow referring to the appended drawings.

[Configuration of a Content Delivery System]

FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a content delivery systemaccording to a preferred embodiment of the invention. The systemincludes a server 1 and a digital book viewer 2. The server 1 isconfigured of a computer (information processor) including a processor(CPU), a storage, I/O circuits and the like.

The digital book viewer 2 is an information terminal including a displaydevice capable of reproducing images, a communication device, aprocessor (CPU), a storage, I/O circuits, an operation device, a soundreproduction device capable of reproducing sounds and the like. Forexample, the digital book viewer 2 is constituted of a smartphone or atablet computer. Unspecified number of digital book viewers 2 may accessto the server 1.

In particular, the server 1 includes an authoring section 10, a database(DB) 11, an operation section 12, an input/output section 13, a scanner14, and a monitor 15.

The authoring section 10 includes an information processor such as CPUand a storage storing a digital comic editing program or the like toperform various information processing in accordance with the digitalcomic editing program. The DB 11 is constituted of a storage medium suchas a hard disk and a memory and the like. The operation section 12includes an operation device such as a keyboard, a mouse, a touch-padand the like. The monitor 15 is a display device constituted of adisplay device such as an LCD.

The authoring section 10 analyzes a content image to create severalpieces of collateral information such as page information, frameinformation, coordinates of speech bubble, ROI information and the like,and creates a piece of master data for digital book, in which thesepieces of data are associated with each other. Also, the authoringsection 10 creates a piece of data optimized for each digital bookviewer 2 from the master data. Detailed description of the authoringsection 10 will be given later.

The DB 11 accumulates content files for storing the content imageassociated with a page number and collateral information thereof in apredetermined file format. The content images are original contentswhich are the data digitalized using the scanner 14 or the like. Theoriginal contents include comics, newspapers, articles of magazines,office documents (presentation documents, etc), textbooks, referencebooks, which are set on the page basis. Also, each set of the contentimages is associated with its own page number.

The content images and the collateral information thereof are stored inan EPUB format. The content images may include their collateralinformation. The collateral information may include author of content,title, total number of pages, volume number, episode number, a holder ofthe right of publication (publisher) and the like.

The content image includes outline images and detailed images (highresolution data), and each image is prepared on the basis of page, frameor anchor point.

The collateral information collateral to the content image includesinformation input from the operation section 12, information of resultof analysis made by the authoring section 10, or information inputthrough the input/output section 13.

The digital book viewer 2 is constituted of a portable informationterminal such as a smartphone or a tablet computer and includes adisplay device capable of reproducing images, a communication device, anoperation detection device, a sound reproduction device, an informationprocessor and the like.

In particular, the digital book viewer 2 includes a database (DB) 21, adisplay section 24, a content display control section 25, a soundreproduction section 26, an operation section 27, a speaker 28, and aninput/output section 29.

The display section 24 is a display device including a display devicesuch as an LCD. The operation section 27 is an operation detectiondevice including a touch panel or the like. The operation section 27 ispreferably laminated on the display section 24, and is capable ofdetecting various operations on the display section 24 such as singletap, double tap, swipe, long press or the like.

The sound reproduction section 26 is a circuit that convertssound-related information (information relevant to read sound and/orinformation relevant to accompanying sound) stored in the content fileinto sounds to outputs the same from the speaker 28.

The input/output section 29 is a device configured to inputs a contentfile output from the input/output section 13 of the server 1. Typically,the input/output section 13 and the input/output section 29 is acommunication device, but it may be a write/read device for a computerreadable storage medium.

The DB 21 stores information same as the DB 11. That is, when thedigital book viewer 2 makes a request to the server 1 to transmit adigital book, the server 1 exports a content file from the DB 11 to theDB 21 via the input/output section 29, and the content file is stored inthe DB 21. However, the information in the DB 11 and the information inthe DB 21 may not be completely identical to each other. The DB 11 is alibrary that stores various kinds of content images, for example,content images of each volume of comics of different authors in order tomeet the requests from various kinds of users. The DB 21 stores at leastcontent files relevant to the contents that a user of the digital bookviewer 2 desires to browse.

The content display control section 25 controls the display of contentson the display section 24.

[Operation of the Content Delivery System]

(A) Creation Processing of Master Data

FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating the processing flow in which theauthoring section 10 creates a piece of master data.

The authoring section 10 acquires a content image (step S1). Theacquired image is stored in the DB 11. The server 1 acquires images ofthe entire page corresponding to the respective pages of the comic (highresolution images of 3000×5000 pixels or 1500×2000 pixels) via a storagemedia or a network; or acquires images by reading the comic by thescanner 14. The authoring section 10 acquires content images acquired bythe server 1 in the above manner. When the content image is alreadystored in the DB 11, the authoring section 10 may acquire the contentimage stored in the DB 11.

In step S1, the authoring section 10 causes the monitor 15 to displaythe content image acquired in step S1 on a registration screen which isa screen for registering various kinds of information. When the userinputs various kinds of information through the operation section 12 inaccordance with the instruction on the registration screen, theauthoring section 10 acquires and registers the information in the DB 11while associating the content image (step S2). The authoring section 10creates an information file and stores the various kinds of informationin the information file. The authoring section 10 makes a connectionbetween the content image and the information file with each other tocreate a piece of master data. The master data is temporarily stored inthe DB 11. As for the format of the information file, for example, anXML file is available.

The various kinds of information (page information) includes severalpieces of information relevant to the content (content unique title ID,title name, author, publisher (holder of the right of publication),publication year, language and the like), a piece of informationrelevant to the page, page name, a piece of information of page ID. Theinformation relevant to the page means a piece of information indicatingwhether the content image is a single page or a two-page spread,right-open/left-open, size of original content.

When a content image shown in FIG. 3 is acquired in step S1, theauthoring section 10 displays a registration screen shown in FIG. 4 onthe monitor 15. On the registration screen, a content image G isdisplayed at the right hand; and a list L of the acquired content imagesis displayed at the left hand. “Index” is a file ID which isautomatically given to the acquired content image. In the list L, pluralpieces of information of the acquired content images are displayed inthe order of file IDs. Before registration, “0” is displayed in thecolumns other than “Index”.

When the user makes an input operation on any column of “filename”,“speaking”, “Language” and “Translation” through the operation section12, the authoring section 10 displays the input character information inthe list L and stores the same in the DB 11. “filename” means a filename; “speaking” indicates existence of sound information; “Language”indicates a language of the character information included in thecontent image; “Translation” indicates existence of translation intoother languages of the character information included in the contentimage. “koma” indicates number of the frames, at this point, “0” isdisplayed (automatically input later).

The authoring section 10 automatically analyzes the content image (stepS3). The automatic analysis is executed when the user checks (select) acheck box of “Auto Koma” and/or “Auto Speech Balloon” and presses OKbutton A through the operation section 12 in the registration screenshown in FIG. 4. In this embodiment, a description is made assuming that“Auto Koma” and “Auto Speech Balloon” are selected.

When “Auto Koma” is selected, the authoring section 10 automaticallydetects frames based on information on the lines included in the contentimage. The information on the lines included in the content image isacquired by, for example, by recognizing a portion in which a regionhaving a stronger contrast in the content image appears linearly as aline.

When “Auto Speech Balloon” is selected, the authoring section 10extracts a text from the content image and determines a closed regionenclosing the periphery of the text as a speech bubble region; thereby aspeech bubble included in the content image is extracted. An opticalcharacter reader (OCR) included in the authoring section 10 extracts thetext. The text read by the OCR is sorted based on the orientation of thecharacters. For example, when the words run vertically, the words aresorted from the top to the end of the line and from a line at the righttoward the line at the left.

The frame detection and the speech bubble extraction may be performedbased on machine learning. For example, detection accuracy of the frameand outer edge of the speech bubble, a determination threshold ofadequateness of the frame region other than rectangle and the speechbubble may be empirically set based on a learning sample comic.

The information file stores a piece of frame information on the frame, apiece of speech bubble information on the speech bubble, and a piece oftext information on the text.

The frame information includes a piece of frame region information. Theframe region information is a piece of information indicating a frameregion which includes the number of the frames included in the page,coordinates of vertexes of each frame and a shape of each frame. Theframe region information may be a piece of vector data indicating aframe boundary line or a piece of mask data indicating a frame region.The frame information further includes a piece of frame orderinformation or the like relevant to the frame order (reproduction order)of each frame. An appropriate pattern of frame order is selected fromsome transition patterns of frame order such as, for example, from topright to bottom left, or from top left to bottom right of the page, anda shift direction (horizontal direction or vertical direction) or thelike based on a piece of information on right-open/left-open page, apiece of information on content representing a language, a frameallocation detected from the frame region information and the like.Thus, frame order is automatically determined in accordance with theselected transition pattern.

The speech bubble information includes a piece of speech bubble regioninformation. The speech bubble region information is a piece ofinformation indicating regions where speech bubbles exist within a pageunit (or frame unit), which includes a piece of position information(for example, coordinates) of plural points corresponding to a speechbubble shape on a line, a shape of the speech bubble (for example,vector information), position and direction of a start point of a speechbubble (vertex of speech bubble), and a size of the speech bubble. Thespeech bubble region information may be a piece of bitmap information(mask data) indicating a full region (range) of the speech bubble. Thespeech bubble region information may be represented by a specificposition (center position) of the speech bubble and the size of thespeech bubble. The speech bubble information further includes, a pieceof information on a text included in the speech bubble, an attribute ofthe line of the speech bubble (dotted line, solid line etc), an IDinformation of a speaker of the speech bubble, and a frame to which thespeech bubble belongs.

The text information includes a piece of text region information and apiece of information on the content of the text. The text regioninformation includes a piece of position information of plural pointscorresponding to the text region on the line (for example, coordinates),a piece of vector information indicating outer periphery edge of thetext region. The text region information may be a piece of bitmapinformation (mask data) indicating a text region (range). Theinformation on the content of the text includes a piece of text(sentence) character attribute information specified by the OCR, numberof lines, line spacing, character spacing, display switching method,language, vertical writing/horizontal writing, differentiation ofreading direction and the like. The character attribute informationincludes a character size (the number of points etc) and characterclassification (font, highlighted character etc). The text informationincludes a dialog of a speaker in the speech bubble. The textinformation also includes a translation sentence and the language ofvarious languages (translation sentences of 2 or more languages areavailable) corresponding to original dialog disposed in the speechbubble.

The authoring section 10 stores a piece of information in which the textand the speech bubble are associated with each other and a piece ofinformation in which the speech bubble or text and the frame areassociated with each other in an information file. Since the text isextracted during the extraction of the speech bubble, the text isassociated with the speech bubble from which the text is extracted. Bycomparing the coordinates included in the speech bubble information withthe coordinates included in the frame information, it is determined inwhich frame the speech bubble included. Thus, the speech bubble isassociated with a frame in which the speech bubble is included. When noclosed region is found around a text, it is a case when only thecharacters are included in the frame. Thus, the text is associated witha frame in which the text is included.

The authoring section 10 updates the master data by storing the frameinformation, the speech bubble information and the text information inthe information file. When all of the processing of the step is mademanually, enormous workload is required. By automatically performing theprocessing as described above, the master data is created efficiently.

The authoring section 10 displays the original content image and thedetection result of the frame of the content image which isautomatically analyzed in step S3 on the monitor 15 next to each other,receives a correction input of the frame detection result through theoperation section 12, and performs frame setting based on the result(step S4).

The processing in step S4 is described in detail. FIG. 5 illustrates aframe detection result by the automatic analysis of a content image(file ID: 1, file name: yakisoba_003) shown in FIG. 3. Actually, thecontent image shown in FIG. 3 and the frame detection result shown inFIG. 5 are displayed on the monitor 15 next to each other. However, onlythe frame detection result shown in FIG. 5 may be displayed. Theauthoring section 10 displays the frame detection result based on theinformation file. The frame detection result is displayed with a thickdotted line with boundary line of each frame (hereinafter, referred toas frame boundary line) being overlapped with the contrast image; and inthe center of each frame, a frame order indicating the reading order ofthe frame is displayed. With this, the user can check the present frameregion information (frame allocation) and frame order.

When a predetermined frame is selected by the user, the authoringsection 10 changes the color of the frame boundary of the frame to acolor different from the color of other frame boundary line (forexample, selected frame is red line; unselected frame is blue line), andstarts to receive a correction input to a selected frame. With this, theuser can check the frame to be edited.

(1) Increasing Frames

In a state a frame is selected, when a certain position in the frame isselected, the authoring section 10 adds a frame boundary line adjacentto the selected position, and accompanying this, updates the frameorder. In step S3, although a line is extracted and recognized, if theline cannot be recognized as a frame boundary line, an erroneousrecognition is caused. When a certain position in the frame is selected,the authoring section 10 extracts a line adjacent to the position atwhich a selection instruction is input which is recognized as a line,but is not recognized as a frame boundary line, a new frame boundaryline is added by recognizing the line as a frame boundary line.

In the frame detection result shown in FIG. 5, in the frame order 2 atthe center of the content image, although actually two frames exist,they are recognizes as a single frame. Therefore, when the user selectsa point adjacent to lines A at the center of the frames through theoperation section 12, the authoring section 10 divides the frame at thecenter of the content image into a frame of frame order 2 and a frame offrame order 3 as shown in FIG. 6.

Accompanying the increase of the frames, the authoring section 10modifies the frame order. In this case, the frame order 3 of the framein FIG. 5 is changed to 4, and the frame order 4 in FIG. 5 is changed to5.

(2) Deleting Frame

In an example shown in FIG. 7, as a result of false recognition that atrunk of a tree B is a line dividing the frame, although the upperportion of the content image is divided into two, actually, the upperframe of the content image is a single frame. An image shown in FIG. 7is displayed on the monitor 15, in a state that the frame with frameorder 1 or the frame with frame order 2 is selected, when the userselects the frame boundary line between the frame with frame order 1 andthe frame with frame order 2 through the operation section 12, theauthoring section 10 deletes the frame boundary line between the framewith frame order 1 and the frame with frame order 2 in FIG. 7, andmodifies the upper frames of the content image into a single frame withframe order 1 as shown in FIG. 8.

Accompanying the deletion of the frame, the authoring section 10modifies the frame order. In this case, the frame order 3 in FIG. 7 ischanged to 2; the frame order 4 is changed to 3; and the frame order 6is changed to 4.

When adding or deleting the frame boundary line, the added frameboundary line and the frame boundary line to be deleted may be displayedto distinguishable from other frame boundary lines. With this, the usercan recognize which frame boundary line is added and which frameboundary line is deleted.

(3) Modification of Frame Boundary Line

When selected frame is double-clicked, the authoring section 10 receivescorrection input of the number of vertexes and coordinates. With this,shape and size of frame can be modified.

When the selected frame is double-clicked, a modification screen of theframe boundary line is displayed as shown in FIG. 9. A frame isrepresented with a polygonal shape having three or more vertexes, and aframe boundary line is represented with a line connecting three or morevertexes. In FIG. 9, since the frame has a square shape, total eightvertexes of the vertexes of the square shape and at rough center of theedges are displayed.

When the user inputs an instruction by double-clicking at a desiredposition on the frame boundary line through the operation section 12, avertex is added to the position. Also, when the user inputs aninstruction by double-clicking on a desired vertex through the operationsection 12, the vertex is deleted.

When the user drags a desired vertex through the operation section 12,the vertex is shifted as shown in FIG. 9, the shape of the frameboundary line is modified. By repeating this operation, the shape andthe size of the frame boundary line can be changed.

(4) Modification of Frame Order

When the user double-clicks on a number indicating the frame orderthrough the operation section 12, the authoring section 10 receives themodification of the frame order, and modifies the frame order with thenumber input through the operation section 12. With this, when theautomatically analyzed frame order is not correct, the frame order ismodified.

When frame setting is made, the authoring section 10 modifies the frameinformation of the information file accordingly. When an instruction todisplay the registration screen is made after frame setting, theauthoring section 10, displays the input number of the frame in a columnof “koma” of the list L on the monitor 15. When the result shown in FIG.6 is set, 5 is input in the “koma” with file ID of 1 as shown in FIG. 4.

When frame setting is made (in step S4), the authoring section 10displays the original content image and the extraction result of thespeech bubble of the content image which is automatically analyzed instep S3 on the monitor 15 next to each other, receives the correctioninput of the extraction result of the speech bubble through theoperation section 12 and sets the speech bubble based on the result(step S5).

The processing in step S5 is described in detail. FIG. 10 is anextraction result of speech bubbles in the content image (file ID: 1,file name: yakisoba_003) shown in FIG. 3 obtained by automatic analysis.Actually, the content image shown in FIG. 3 and the speech bubbleextraction result shown in FIG. 9 are displayed on the monitor 15 nextto each other. However, only the speech bubble extraction result shownin FIG. 9 may be displayed. The authoring section 10 displays the speechbubble extraction result based on the information file. The authoringsection 10 displays a covered over image of the extracted speech bubbleon the monitor 15 so that the extracted speech bubble can bedistinguished from other region. In FIG. 9, as the image indicating thespeech bubble regions, an image in which the extracted speech bubblesare covered over by hatching is shown. An image in which the outerperiphery edges of the speech bubbles are thickly drawn may be displayedas an image indicating the speech bubble regions.

(1) Addition of Speech Bubble

In the extraction result shown in FIG. 10, since a part of the boundaryline of a speech bubble X at the bottom left is broken, it is notdetected automatically. The user connects the portion where boundaryline is broken through the operation section 12 to form a closed region.After that, when the user selects the closed region through theoperation section 12 and indicates the recognition, the authoringsection 10 automatically recognizes the selected closed region as aspeech bubble. As a result, the speech bubble X is also covered over asshown in FIG. 11, and is set as a speech bubble same as the other speechbubbles.

(2) Deleting Speech Bubble

Since a balloon Y is a closed region, in the extraction result shown inFIG. 12, although the balloon Y is not a speech bubble, it is extractedas a speech bubble. This is caused from a false recognition of thecharacters in the balloon Y as a text. When the user selects the balloonY through the operation section 12, the authoring section 10 deletes theautomatically selected closed region (in this case, inside of theballoon Y) from the speech bubble. As a result, hatching is deleted fromthe balloon Y as shown in FIG. 13.

(3) Modifying Speech Bubble Region when Speech Bubble is not DetectedClearly

In an extraction result shown in FIG. 14, a part of a speech bubble Z atthe top right is not extracted. This is caused when a character in thespeech bubble is too close to the boundary line or in contact therewithas indicated with a chain line in FIG. 15; or when the characters in aspeech bubble are too close to each other or in contact with each otheras indicated with a two-dot chain line shown in FIG. 15.

FIG. 16 is an enlarged view of the extraction result of the speechbubble Z shown in FIG. 14; FIG. 17 illustrates the extraction resultshown in FIG. 16 from which characters are deleted. As shown in FIG. 17,in the speech bubble Z, a part of the boundary line is in contact withthe character (FIG. 17-a); a part of the characters runs off the speechbubble (FIG. 17-b). Therefore, when the user selects closed region b inthe speech bubble through the operation section 12, the authoringsection 10 automatically determines the closed region b as a speechbubble (refer to FIG. 17) as shown in FIG. 18. Also, when the user addsa boundary line c of the speech bubble through the operation section 12as shown in FIG. 18, the authoring section 10 automatically determinesthe closed region generated by the boundary line c (refer to FIG. 18) asa speech bubble as shown in FIG. 19. As a result, the speech bubble,which was not detected clearly, is extracted correctly as shown in FIG.19.

When correction input of the extraction result of the speech bubble ismade as described above, the authoring section 10 modifies the speechbubble information in the information file accordingly.

After completing the speech bubble setting (step S5), the authoringsection 10 displays the original content image and the text recognitionresult of the content image which is automatically analyzed in step S3on the monitor 15 next to each other, and receives correction input ofthe recognition result of the text made through the operation section 12and performs the text setting based on the result (step S6).

The processing in step S6 is described in detail. FIG. 20 illustrates atext recognition result obtained by automatic analysis of a contentimage (file ID: 1, file name: yakisoba_003) shown in FIG. 3. Actually,the content image shown in FIG. 3 and the recognition result shown inFIG. 20 are displayed on the monitor 15 next to each other. However,only the text recognition result shown in FIG. 20 may be displayed. Theauthoring section 10 displays the extraction result of the text based onthe information file. The authoring section 10 displays an image inwhich the outer periphery edge of the text region in a thick line on themonitor 15 thereby the text region and other regions can be recognized.In FIG. 20, an image in which the outer periphery edge of the textregion is drawn with a thick line is shown as the image indicating thetext region. However, an image indicating text region, in which the textregion is translucently covered over may be displayed. By covering overtranslucently, the user can recognize the text.

(1) Adding Text

In FIG. 20, a text “What?” of hand written characters is not recognized.When the user encloses “What?” through the operation section 12 toinstruct to recognize the same, the authoring section 10 recognizes theclosed region enclosing “What?” as a text region. The authoring section10 may be configured so as, when the user indicates on or adjacent to acharacter of “What?” through the operation section 12, to recognize theposition which is indicated thereon or adjacent thereto through theoperation section 12, here, the closed region enclosing “What?” as atext region. As a result, “What?” is also set as a text region as shownin FIG. 21, and thus, the text region information is acquired.

After the text region is set, the character data is specified by theoptical character reader of the authoring section 10. When the characterdata is not specified, the authoring section 10 prompts the user toinput, and the user inputs the characters through the operation section12. With this, the information on the content of the text is acquired.

When correction input of the text extraction result has been made asdescribed above, the authoring section 10 modifies the text informationin the information file.

(2) Deleting Text

When a text region is erroneously recognized, the user selects a desiredposition on the erroneous text region through the operation section 12and gives an instruction to perform recognition. Then, the authoringsection 10 automatically deletes the text region selected from theinformation file. The authoring section 10 also deletes a piece ofinformation on the text content of the deleted text region from theinformation file.

When the text setting (step S6) is completed, the authoring section 10automatically extracts a region of interest (hereinafter, referred to asROI) from the original content image (step S7). ROI means an item to bealways displayed on the digital book viewer 2, which is a face (or aregion equivalent to face) of a character in the original comic of thecontent image. The character includes not only a person but also ananimal, a non-living material such as a telephone, a PC, electronicequipment and a robot.

The authoring section 10 includes a known image analysis technology, forexample, a face detection device which automatically detects a face of acharacter by using a face detection technique, and the face detectiondevice detects the face of the character from the content image. Theauthoring section 10 sets a polygonal shape region enclosing thedetected face as a region of interest. The position, size, type ofcontent elements such as animal, building, vehicle and other objects maybe automatically detected based on the feature amount of information onthe images by using known image analysis technology.

The authoring section 10 stores a piece of region of interestinformation which is a piece of information on the region of interest(ROI) in the information file. The region of interest information may bea piece of vector data representing coordinates of each vertex of theROI, a shape of the ROI or an outer periphery edge of the ROI. Theregion of interest information further includes a piece of informationon the characters included in the ROI (for example, automatically givencharacter ID). Also, the region of interest information may includepriority order, important degree to display, ID information (name etc)of the character, character's attributes (sex, age etc) and the like.

When the automatic extraction (step S7) of the ROI has completed, theauthoring section 10 receives correction input of the ROI extractionresult and performs ROI setting based on the result (step S8).

The processing in step S8 is described in detail. FIG. 22 shows a ROIextraction result made through automatic analysis of the content imageshown in FIG. 3 (file ID: 1, file name: yakisoba_003). Actually, thecontent image shown in FIG. 3 and the recognition result shown in FIG.22 are displayed next to each other on the monitor 15. However, only theROI extraction result shown in FIG. 22 may be displayed. The authoringsection 10 displays the ROI extraction result based on the informationfile. The authoring section 10 displays the image with the outerperiphery edge of the ROI thickly drawn on the monitor 15, to facilitaterecognition of the ROI and other regions. In FIG. 22, the image in whichthe outer periphery edge of the ROI is thickly drawn is shown as animage representing the ROI. The translucently covered over ROI may bedisplayed as the image representing the ROI region. By translucentlycovering over, the user can recognize the characters.

(1) Adding ROI

In FIG. 22, the characters include a man M and a woman F, a face Cfacing leftward of man M turning his head to a side is not recognized.When the user selects a desired position on the face C facing leftwardof the man M turning his head to a side through the operation section 12and gives an instruction to perform recognition, the authoring section10 recognizes a closed region including the indicated position as theROI. Also, the authoring section 10 modifies the region of interestinformation in the information file accordingly. As a result, an imagerepresenting the ROI is displayed on the face C facing leftward of theman M as shown in FIG. 23.

(2) Deleting ROI

When the ROI is erroneously extracted, the user selects a desired pointon an incorrect ROI through the operation section 12 and gives aninstruction to recognize. The authoring section 10 automatically deletesthe region of interest information selected from the information file.With this, the image representing erroneous ROI is deleted from themonitor 15.

When the ROI setting (step S8) is completed, the authoring section 10performs pairing to make a connection between the ROIs and the speechbubbles (step S9). The pairing makes a connection between a dialog in aspeech bubble (speech bubble and text) and its generation source (ROI).

FIG. 24 illustrates a result that speech bubbles, texts and ROIs are setin steps S5-S7. In FIG. 24, speech bubbles i-xii are included as thespeech bubble; a woman F (F1-F3) and a man M (M1-M4) are included as theROI. Although the woman F1-F3 is all the identical person (woman F), theexpression of woman F1-F3 is employed for the sake of description.Likewise, although the man M1-M4 is all the identical person (man M),the expression of man M1-M4 is employed for the sake of description.

A method to perform the pairing manually is described. The authoringsection 10 displays a content image on the monitor 15 based on theinformation file in a state the speech bubbles and ROIs, which are setin steps S5 and S7, are selectable. When the user selects apredetermined speech bubble and an ROI one each through the operationsection 12, the authoring section 10 recognizes the speech bubble andthe ROI and sets the same as a pair. The speech bubble i is a speech ofthe woman F1. Therefore, when the speech bubble i and the woman F1 areselected through the operation section 12, the authoring section 10automatically recognizes the speech bubble i and the woman F1 as a pairand sets the speech bubble i and the woman F1 as a pair 1. Likewise,when the speech bubble ii and the man M1 are selected through theoperation section 12, the authoring section 10 automatically recognizesthe speech bubble ii and the man M1 as a pair and sets the speech bubbleii and the man M1 as pair 2. After completing the pairing on everyspeech bubble, the authoring section 10 stores the pairing result in theinformation file.

Next, a description is made on the method that the authoring section 10automatically performs the pairing first, and subsequently modificationis made manually. The authoring section 10 automatically performspairing on ROI and speech bubble neighboring each other based on theinformation file. In the case shown in FIG. 24, the speech bubble i andthe woman F1 are set as pair 1; the speech bubble ii and the man M1 areset as pair 2; the speech bubble iii and the man M3 are set as pair 3;the speech bubble iv and the man M2 are set as pair 4; the speech bubblev and the woman F2 are set as pair 5; the speech bubble vi and the womanF2 are set as pair 6; the speech bubble vii and the man M3 are set aspair 7; the speech bubble viii and the man M3 are set as pair 8; thespeech bubble ix and the man M3 are set as pair 9; the speech bubble xand the man M4 are set as pair 10; the speech bubble xi and the woman F3are set as pair 11; and the speech bubble xii and the woman F3 are setas pair 12.

The authoring section 10 stores the pairing result in the informationfile, and displays the content image on the monitor 15 in a state inwhich the pairing result is recognizable based on the information file.For example, an image in which a pair is enclosed by a dotted line isdisplayed being superimposed on a content image.

When the user selects an image in which a predetermined pair is enclosedwith a dotted line through the operation section 12, the authoringsection 10 receives the modification of the pair. In the example shownin FIG. 24, the speech bubble xi should not be paired with the woman F3but with the man M 4. Therefore, the pair 11 should be modified. Whenthe user double-clicks the pair 11 through the operation section 12, thepair 11 gets ready to be edited. When the speech bubble xi and the man M4 are selected, the authoring section 10 reset the speech bubble xi andthe man M 4 as the pair 11, and modifies the information file.

The authoring section 10 displays the content image in a state thepairing result is recognizable on the monitor 15 based on the modifiedinformation file. As a result, the modification result of the pair 11can be checked on the monitor 15 as shown in FIG. 25.

The pairing may be allotted with a number. The authoring section 10 mayallot numbers from the pairing of the speech bubble located at the topright, or may allot numbers based on the input through the operationsection 12. The numbers may represent the display order of the speechbubble.

Finally, the authoring section 10 stores a master data including theinformation file updated in steps S4-S9 and the content image in theDB11 (step S10).

FIG. 26 illustrates a structure of the master data. In this embodiment,since each comic has an information file, the information file includesplural pieces of page information. The respective pages have a piece ofpage information; a piece of frame information is made connected withthe page information; and the speech bubble information (textinformation) and the region of interest information are made connectedwith the frame information. The information file may be created not foreach comic but for each page.

By creating the master data, it is made possible to edit the content inaccordance with the digital book viewer, automatic translation of thetext, translation editing and sharing and display processing appropriatefor digital book viewer, and delivery of the digital book isfacilitated.

In this embodiment, the authoring section 10 acquires a content imageand creates a master data which stores the frame information, the speechbubble information, the text information and the like. However, theauthoring section 10 may acquire a master data (equivalent to the masterdata created in step S2 shown in FIG. 2) which has an information filestoring various kinds of information, and then perform the processing insteps S3-S10 and may store a final master data in the DB. Also, theauthoring section 10 may acquire a master data (equivalent to the masterdata created in step S3 shown in FIG. 2) which has an information filein which frames, speech bubbles and texts are automatically extracted,and the frame information, the speech bubble information and the textinformation are stored, and may store a final master data in the DBafter performing the processing in steps S4-S10.

(B) Master Data Edition Processing

FIG. 27 illustrates a display screen for performing editing for adigital book viewer. The authoring section 10 displays a content imageon the monitor 15. The authoring section 10 displays the frame boundaryline of each frame with a thick line based on the information file.Roughly in the center of each frame, a frame order representing readingorder of the frame is displayed. The display of the frame order is notlimited to the above, but the frame order may be displayed at a cornerof the frame.

The authoring section 10 acquires a screen size of the digital bookviewer 2 from the DB 11 or the like, and displays a border Frepresenting the screen size of the digital book viewer 2 superimposingthe same on the content image based on the information on the screensize of the digital book viewer 2 and the information of the informationfile. When the user input an instruction to shift the border Fvertically/horizontally through the operation section 12, the authoringsection 10 shifts the border F vertically/horizontally responding to theinstruction from the operation section 12.

The authoring section 10 determines the minimum display times; that is,scroll times necessary for displaying entire of the frame based on theinformation on the screen size of the digital book viewer 2 and theinformation of the information file and displays the information(marker) superimposing the same on the content image. In thisembodiment, since the marker is displayed roughly in the center of eachframe, in the FIG. 27, the frame order is displayed being superimposedon the marker.

In FIG. 27, scroll times are represented with a rectangular marker. Whenthe scroll time is once, in FIG. 27, the frame order is displayed with amarker of square shape of a in each edge length like frames 3 and 4.When the scroll times are two or more, a rectangular marker of a ofinteger times in an edge length is displayed. When the scroll in avertical direction is n times; and the scroll in the horizontaldirection is m times, a rectangular marker of na×ma in vertical andhorizontal length is displayed. In frames with frame order 1, 2, 6 and 7in FIG. 27, since horizontal scroll is two times and vertical scroll isonce, a rectangular marker of 2 a in horizontal direction and a invertical direction is displayed. By displaying the marker as describedabove, the times and direction of the scroll can be easily understood ata glance of the marker without interposing the border F on each frame.

The user shifts the frame boundary line as described above whilemonitoring the image displayed on the monitor 15. When the user makesdouble click or the like on the frame boundary line through theoperation section 12, the authoring section 10 displays vertexes on theframe boundary line as shown in FIG. 28 to allow editing on the frameboundary line. When the user drags a desired vertex through theoperation section 12 same as step S4 (FIG. 9), the vertex is shifted andthe shape of the frame boundary line is modified. By repeating thisoperation, shape (for example, change from a pentagon to a rectangle)and size of the frame boundary line can be changed. Also, a vertex maybe added or deleted. Since the operation to add or delete a vertex isthe same as step S4, the description thereof is omitted here.

When the size of a frame is slightly larger than the screen size of thedigital book viewer 2, the authoring section 10 displays a frameboundary line of a frame slightly larger than the screen size of thedigital book viewer 2 with a color different from that of the otherframe boundary lines based on the information on the screen size of thedigital book viewer 2 and the information of the information file. Thecase when the vertical and horizontal sizes of the frame is slightlylarger than the screen size of the digital book viewer 2 is conceivablethat, for example, assuming about 10% of the screen size of the digitalbook viewer 2 as the threshold value, a case where the length of a edgeof the frame is larger by about 10% than the screen size of the digitalbook viewer 2. In FIG. 27, the frame boundary line of the frame withframe order 5 is indicated with a color different from that of otherframe boundary lines.

In the frame slightly larger than the screen size of the digital bookviewer 2, the scroll time can be reduced to once and the visibility canbe increased by arranging a portion with little importance within theframe to be invisible as if the same is not included in the frame. Asshown in FIG. 29, the position and shape of the frame boundary line ofthe frame with frame order 5 which is slightly larger than the border Fare changed so that the scroll time becomes once. In FIG. 29, the framewith frame order 5 is arranged to be smaller so that a left end part isexcluded from the frame resulting in scroll time of once.

After changing the scroll time as described above, the authoring section10 detects the same and updates the information file. Also, theauthoring section 10 changes the size of the marker to a×a, and changesthe color of the frame boundary line of the frame with frame order 5 tothe same color of the other frames.

The frame boundary line may be deleted or added. Since the method toadd/delete the frame boundary line is the same as the method in step S4,the description thereof is omitted. For example, in a state apredetermined frame is selected, when a predetermined frame boundaryline of the frame is selected by the user through the operation section12, the selected frame is deleted. For example, when the size of theframe is small and the border F includes two frames, efficient displayis possible by using a single frame.

The authoring section 10 is capable of displaying a preview screen onthe monitor 15. FIG. 30 illustrates an example of the preview screen.The authoring section 10 displays a content image on the monitor 15while superimposing the border F representing the screen size of thedigital book viewer 2 on the content image. The authoring section 10translucently covers over the outside of the border F to preview screenwhich is visible only the inside of the border F. Not only translucentlycovering over the outside of the border F, the outside of the border Fmay be covered over with gray color.

When the user gives an instruction through the operation section 12, theauthoring section 10 scrolls the border F to display the next previewscreen. When any frame is rest without being previewed, the authoringsection 10 shifts the border F to show every frame under being previewedto translucently display the outside of the border F so that every framecan be previewed. In the example shown in FIG. 30, the border F isshifted leftward by a distance of “t”.

When the preview is completed on every frame under being previewed, theauthoring section 10 shift the border F so that the right end of theframe with next frame order aligns with the right end of the border F,and translucently displays the outside of the border F.

With this, the user can check the state of the images on the digitalbook viewer 2. Accordingly, the master data can be edited moreappropriately.

The edition processing of the master data is not limited to the casewhere the authoring section 10 creates the master data. A master datacreated by an external digital comic generating device may be stored inthe DB 11 of the server 1 and edit the same.

According to the embodiment, master data of the content of a digitalcomic is created and edited by the delivery server of a digital book.However, as for the apparatus for creating the master data may be adigital comic editor different from the server which delivers thecontent. The digital comic editor may be configured with a generalpurpose personal computer in which a digital comic editing programaccording to the invention is installed via a storing medium storing thesame.

The master data which is created and edited as described above isdelivered through a server (delivery server) responding to a deliveryrequest from various mobile terminals. In this case, the delivery serveracquires a piece of information on the model of the mobile terminal. Themaster data may be delivered after being processed into the datasuitable for browsing by the model (screen size etc); the master datamay be delivered without being processed. When the master data isdelivered without being processed, the master data has to be convertedinto the data suitable for the mobile terminal using viewer software atthe mobile terminal side before the master data can be browsed. However,the master data includes an information file as described above. Theviewer software uses the information described in the information fileto display the content on the mobile terminal.

The invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment. Needlessto say, various modifications are possible within a range of the spiritof the invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A digital comic editor, comprising: a dataacquisition device configured to acquire a piece of master data of adigital comic, the master data including: an image file corresponding toeach page of the comic, the image file having a high resolution image ofthe entire page; and an information file corresponding to each page orall pages of the comic, the information file having described therein apiece of speech bubble information including a piece of speech bubbleregion information representing regions of speech bubbles for containingdialogs of characters in the image; a display control device configuredto control a display device to display an image thereon based on theimage file in the master data acquired by the data acquisition deviceand to display an image representing speech bubble regions based on thespeech bubble region information included in the information file in themaster data while superimposing the image representing the speech bubbleregions on the image based on the image file; an indication deviceconfigured to indicate a position on the image displayed on the displaydevice; a speech bubble region addition device configured to add a newpiece of speech bubble region information to the position indicated bythe indication device; a speech bubble region deletion device configuredto delete the speech bubble region information from the positionindicated by the indication device; an editing device configured toupdate the speech bubble region information included in the informationfile based on the speech bubble region information added by the speechbubble region addition device and the speech bubble region informationdeleted by the speech bubble region deletion device; a speech bubbleregion detection device configured to detect a piece of closed regioninformation for enclosing a periphery of the position indicated by theindication device as a piece of speech bubble region information,wherein the display control device controls to display an imagerepresenting the speech bubble region based on the speech bubble regioninformation detected by the speech bubble region detection device whilesuperimposing the image representing the speech bubble region on theimage based on the image file, and the speech bubble region additiondevice adds the speech bubble region information detected by the speechbubble region detection device; an image acquisition device configuredto acquire an image file having a high resolution image of the entirepage; a speech bubble region extraction device configured to analyze theimage of the entire page acquired by the image acquisition device andautomatically extracts the speech bubble regions in the image; aninformation file creation device configured to create an informationfile having described therein the speech bubble information whichincludes a piece of speech bubble region information representing aspeech bubble region extracted by the speech bubble region extractiondevice; and a master data creation device configured to create a pieceof master data of the digital comic, the master data including: an imagefile acquired by the image acquisition device for each page of thecomic; and an information file corresponding to each page or all pagesof the comic, which is created by the information file creation device,wherein the data acquisition device acquires a piece of master datacreated by the master data creation device.
 2. The digital comic editoraccording to claim 1, wherein the speech bubble region informationcomprises a piece of vector data representing an outer periphery edge ofthe speech bubble region or a piece of mask data representing the speechbubble region.
 3. The digital comic editor according to claim 1, whereinthe display control device controls to display an image of covered overspeech bubble regions or an image drawn with the outer periphery edge ofthe speech bubble regions based on the speech bubble region information.4. The digital comic editor according to claim 1, wherein the speechbubble region extraction device includes a text detection deviceconfigured to detect texts in the image and detects closed regionsenclosing the periphery of the texts detected by the text detectiondevice as the speech bubble region.
 5. A digital comic editor,comprising: a data acquisition device configured to acquire a piece ofmaster data of a digital comic, the master data including: an image filecorresponding to each page of the comic, the image file having a highresolution image of the entire page; and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, the informationfile having described therein a piece of text region informationrepresenting text regions in the comic; a display control deviceconfigured to control a display device to display an image thereon basedon the image file in the master data acquired by the data acquisitiondevice and to display an image representing text regions based on thetext region information included in the information file in the masterdata while superimposing the image representing the text regions on theimage based on the image file; an indication device configured toindicate a position on the image displayed on the display device; a textregion addition device configured to add a new piece of text regioninformation to the position indicated by the indication device; a textregion deletion device configured to delete the text region informationfrom the position indicated by the indication device; an editing deviceconfigured to update the text region information included in theinformation file based on the text region information added by the textregion addition device and the text region information deleted by thetext region deletion device; a speech bubble region detection deviceconfigured to detect a piece of closed region information for enclosinga periphery of the position indicated by the indication device as apiece of speech bubble region information, wherein the display controldevice controls to display an image representing the speech bubbleregion based on the speech bubble region information detected by thespeech bubble region detection device while superimposing the imagerepresenting the speech bubble region on the image based on the imagefile, and the speech bubble region addition device adds the speechbubble region information detected by the speech bubble region detectiondevice; an image acquisition device configured to acquire an image filehaving a high resolution image of the entire page; a speech bubbleregion extraction device configured to analyze the image of the entirepage acquired by the image acquisition device and automatically extractsthe speech bubble regions in the image; an information file creationdevice configured to create an information file having described thereinthe speech bubble information which includes a piece of speech bubbleregion information representing a speech bubble region extracted by thespeech bubble region extraction device; and a master data creationdevice configured to create a piece of master data of the digital comic,the master data including: an image file acquired by the imageacquisition device for each page of the comic; and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, which is createdby the information file creation device, wherein the data acquisitiondevice acquires a piece of master data created by the master datacreation device.
 6. The digital comic editor according to claim 5,further comprising: a text detection device configured to detect a textadjacent to a position indicated by the indication device; and a textregion detection device configured to detect a piece of regioninformation for enclosing a periphery of the text detected by the textdetection device as a piece of text region information, wherein thedisplay control device controls to display an image representing thetext region based on the text region information detected by the textregion detection device while superimposing the image representing thespeech bubble region on the image based on the image file, and the textregion addition device adds the text region information detected by thetext region detection device.
 7. The digital comic editor according toclaim 5, wherein the text region information comprises a piece ofcoordinate data representing each vertex on an outer periphery edge of apolygonal shape in the text region, a piece of vector data representingthe outer periphery edge of the text region or a mask data representingthe text region.
 8. The digital comic editor according to claim 5,wherein the display control device controls to display an image in whichthe text region is translucently covered over or an image in which theouter periphery edge of the text region is drawn based on the textregion information.
 9. The digital comic editor according to claim 5,further comprising: an image acquisition device configured to acquire animage file having a high resolution image of the entire page; a textregion extraction device configured to analyze the image of the entirepage acquired by the image acquisition device and automatically extractsthe text regions in the image; an information file creation deviceconfigured to create an information file having described therein thetext region information representing the text region extracted by thetext region extraction device; and a master data creation deviceconfigured to create a piece of master data of the digital comic, themaster data including: an image file acquired by the image acquisitiondevice for each page of the comic; and an information file correspondingto each page or all pages of the comic, which is created by theinformation file creation device, wherein the data acquisition deviceacquires a piece of master data created by the master data creationdevice.
 10. A digital comic editor, comprising: a data acquisitiondevice configured to acquire a piece of master data of a digital comic,the master data including: an image file corresponding to each page ofthe comic, the image file having a high resolution image of the entirepage; and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages ofthe comic, the information file having described therein a piece ofregion of interest information representing regions of interest in thecomic; a display control device configured to control a display deviceto display an image thereon based on the image file in the master dataacquired by the data acquisition device and to display an imagerepresenting a region of interest based on the region of interestinformation included in the information file in the master data whilesuperimposing the image representing the region of interest on the imagebased on the image file; an indication device configured to indicate aposition on the image displayed on the display device; a region ofinterest addition device configured to add a new piece of region ofinterest information to the position indicated by the indication device;a region of interest deletion device configured to delete the region ofinterest information from the position indicated by the indicationdevice; an editing device configured to update a piece of region ofinterest information included in the information file based on theregion of interest information added by the region of interest additiondevice and the region of interest information deleted by the region ofinterest deletion device; a speech bubble region detection deviceconfigured to detect a piece of closed region information for enclosinga periphery of the position indicated by the indication device as apiece of speech bubble region information, wherein the display controldevice controls to display an image representing the speech bubbleregion based on the speech bubble region information detected by thespeech bubble region detection device while superimposing the imagerepresenting the speech bubble region on the image based on the imagefile, and the speech bubble region addition device adds the speechbubble region information detected by the speech bubble region detectiondevice; an image acquisition device configured to acquire an image filehaving a high resolution image of the entire page; a speech bubbleregion extraction device configured to analyze the image of the entirepage acquired by the image acquisition device and automatically extractsthe speech bubble regions in the image; an information file creationdevice configured to create an information file having described thereinthe speech bubble information which includes a piece of speech bubbleregion information representing a speech bubble region extracted by thespeech bubble region extraction device; and a master data creationdevice configured to create a piece of master data of the digital comic,the master data including: an image file acquired by the imageacquisition device for each page of the comic; and an information filecorresponding to each page or all pages of the comic, which is createdby the information file creation device, wherein the data acquisitiondevice acquires a piece of master data created by the master datacreation device.
 11. The digital comic editor according to claim 10,further comprising a region of interest detection device which includesa character detection device for detecting characters adjacent to aposition indicated by the indication device and detects a piece ofregion information including the characters as the region of interestinformation, wherein the display control device controls to displayimages representing the regions of interest based on the region ofinterest information detected by the region of interest detection devicewhile superimposing the image representing the regions of interest onthe image based on the image file, the region of interest additiondevice adds a piece of region of interest information detected by theregion of interest detection device.
 12. The digital comic editoraccording to claim 11, wherein the character comprises a face, and thecharacter detection device comprises a face detection device.
 13. Thedigital comic editor according to claim 10, wherein the region ofinterest information comprises a piece of coordinate data representingeach vertex on an outer periphery edge of the polygonal shape in theregion of interest, a piece of vector data representing the outerperiphery edge of the region of interest or a piece of mask datarepresenting the region.
 14. The digital comic editor according to claim10, wherein the display control device controls to display an image inwhich the region of interest is translucently covered over or an imagein which the outer periphery edge of the region of interest is drawnbased on the region of interest information.
 15. The digital comiceditor according to claim 10, further comprising: an image acquisitiondevice configured to acquire an image file having a high resolutionimage of the entire page; a region of interest extraction deviceconfigured to analyze the image of the entire page acquired by the imageacquisition device and automatically extracts the regions of interest inthe image; an information file creation device configured to create aninformation file having described therein the region of interestinformation representing the region of interest extracted by the regionof interest extraction device; and a master data creation deviceconfigured to create a piece of master data of the digital comic, themaster data including: an image file acquired by the image acquisitiondevice for each page of the comic; and an information file correspondingto each page or all pages of the comic, which is created by theinformation file creation device, wherein the data acquisition deviceacquires a piece of master data created by the master data creationdevice.
 16. A digital comic editing method, comprising: a dataacquisition step acquiring a piece of master data of a digital comic,the master data including: an image file corresponding to each page ofthe comic, the image file having a high resolution image of the entirepage; and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages ofthe comic, the information file having described therein a piece of textregion information representing text regions of the comic; a displaycontrol step controlling a display device to display an image thereonbased on the image file in the master data acquired in the dataacquisition step and to display an image representing a speech bubbleregion based on the speech bubble region information included in theinformation file in the master data while superimposing the imagerepresenting the speech bubble region on the image based on the imagefile; an indication step indicating a position on the image displayed onthe display device; a speech bubble region addition step adding a newpiece of speech bubble region information to a position indicated in theindication step; a speech bubble region deletion step deleting thespeech bubble region information from the position indicated in theindication step; an editing step updating the speech bubble regioninformation included in the information file based on the speech bubbleregion information added in the speech bubble region addition step andthe speech bubble region information deleted in the speech bubble regiondeletion step; a speech bubble region detection step detecting a pieceof closed region information for enclosing a periphery of the positionindicated by the indication step as a piece of speech bubble regioninformation, wherein the display control step controls displaying animage representing the speech bubble region based on the speech bubbleregion information detected by the speech bubble region detection stepwhile superimposing the image representing the speech bubble region onthe image based on the image file, and the speech bubble region additionstep adds the speech bubble region information detected by the speechbubble region detection step; an image acquisition step acquiring animage file having a high resolution image of the entire page; a speechbubble region extraction step analyzing the image of the entire pageacquired by the image acquisition step and automatically extracts thespeech bubble regions in the image; an information file creation stepcreating an information file having described therein the speech bubbleinformation which includes a piece of speech bubble region informationrepresenting a speech bubble region extracted by the speech bubbleregion extraction step; and a master data creation step creating a pieceof master data of the digital comic, the master data including: an imagefile acquired by the image acquisition step for each page of the comic;and an information file corresponding to each page or all pages of thecomic, which is created by the information file creation step, whereinthe data acquisition step acquires a piece of master data created by themaster data creation step.
 17. A digital comic editing method,comprising: a data acquisition step acquiring a piece of master data ofa digital comic, the master data including: an image file correspondingto each page of the comic, the image file having a high resolution imageof the entire page; and an information file corresponding to each pageor all pages of the comic, the information file having described thereina piece of region of interest information representing the region ofinterest of the comic; a display control step controlling a displaydevice to display an image thereon based on the image file in the masterdata acquired in the data acquisition step and to display an imagerepresenting a text region based on the text region information includedin the information file in the master data while superimposing the imagerepresenting the text region on the image based on the image file; anindication step indicating a position on the image displayed on thedisplay device; a text region addition step adding a new piece of textregion information to a position indicated in the indication step; atext region deletion step deleting the text region information from theposition indicated in the indication step; and an editing step updatingthe text region information included in the information file based onthe text region information added in the text region addition step andthe text region information deleted in the text region deletion step; aspeech bubble region detection step detecting a piece of closed regioninformation for enclosing a periphery of the position indicated by theindication step as a piece of speech bubble region information, whereinthe display control step controls displaying an image representing thespeech bubble region based on the speech bubble region informationdetected by the speech bubble region detection step while superimposingthe image representing the speech bubble region on the image based onthe image file, and the speech bubble region addition step adds thespeech bubble region information detected by the speech bubble regiondetection step; an image acquisition step acquiring an image file havinga high resolution image of the entire page; a speech bubble regionextraction step analyzing the image of the entire page acquired by theimage acquisition step and automatically extracts the speech bubbleregions in the image; an information file creation step creating aninformation file having described therein the speech bubble informationwhich includes a piece of speech bubble region information representinga speech bubble region extracted by the speech bubble region extractionstep; and a master data creation step creating a piece of master data ofthe digital comic, the master data including: an image file acquired bythe image acquisition step for each page of the comic; and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,which is created by the information file creation step, wherein the dataacquisition step acquires a piece of master data created by the masterdata creation step.
 18. A digital comic editing method, comprising: adata acquisition step acquiring a piece of master data of a digitalcomic, the master data including: an image file of each page of thecomic having high resolution image of the entire page; and aninformation file having described therein a region of interestinformation representing regions of interest of the comic; a displaycontrol step controlling a display device to display an image thereonbased on the image file in the master data acquired in the dataacquisition step and to display an image representing a region ofinterest based on the region of interest information included in theinformation file in the master data while superimposing the imagerepresenting the region of interest on the image based on the imagefile; an indication step indicating a position on the image displayed onthe display device; a region of interest addition step that adds a newpiece of region of interest information to a position indicated in theindication step; a region of interest deletion step deleting the regionof interest information from the position indicated in the indicationstep; an editing step updating a piece of region of interest informationincluded in the information file based on the region of interestinformation added in the region of interest addition step and the regionof interest information deleted in the region of interest deletion step;a speech bubble region detection step detecting a piece of closed regioninformation for enclosing a periphery of the position indicated by theindication step as a piece of speech bubble region information, whereinthe display control step controls displaying an image representing thespeech bubble region based on the speech bubble region informationdetected by the speech bubble region detection step while superimposingthe image representing the speech bubble region on the image based onthe image file, and the speech bubble region addition step adds thespeech bubble region information detected by the speech bubble regiondetection step; an image acquisition step acquiring an image file havinga high resolution image of the entire page; a speech bubble regionextraction step analyzing the image of the entire page acquired by theimage acquisition step and automatically extracts the speech bubbleregions in the image; an information file creation step creating aninformation file having described therein the speech bubble informationwhich includes a piece of speech bubble region information representinga speech bubble region extracted by the speech bubble region extractionstep; and a master data creation step creating a piece of master data ofthe digital comic, the master data including: an image file acquired bythe image acquisition step for each page of the comic; and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,which is created by the information file creation step, wherein the dataacquisition step acquires a piece of master data created by the masterdata creation step.
 19. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring a digital comic editing program causing a computer to execute: adata acquisition step to acquire a piece of master data of a digitalcomic, the master data including: an image file corresponding to eachpage of the comic, the image file having a high resolution image of theentire page; and an information file corresponding to each page or allpages of the comic, the information file having described therein apiece of speech bubble information including a piece of speech bubbleregion information representing regions of speech bubbles for containingdialogs of characters in the image; a display control step to control adisplay device to display an image thereon based on the image file inthe master data acquired by the data acquisition step and to display animage representing a speech bubble region based on the speech bubbleregion information included in the information file in the master datawhile superimposing the image representing the speech bubble region onthe image based on the image file; an indication step to indicate aposition on the image displayed on the display device; a speech bubbleregion addition step to add a new piece of speech bubble regioninformation to a position indicated by the indication step; a speechbubble region deletion step to delete the speech bubble regioninformation from the position indicated by the indication step; anediting step to update the speech bubble region information included inthe information file based on the speech bubble region information addedby the speech bubble region addition step and the speech bubble regioninformation deleted by the speech bubble region deletion step; a speechbubble region detection step detecting a piece of closed regioninformation for enclosing a periphery of the position indicated by theindication step as a piece of speech bubble region information, whereinthe display control step controls displaying an image representing thespeech bubble region based on the speech bubble region informationdetected by the speech bubble region detection step while superimposingthe image representing the speech bubble region on the image based onthe image file, and the speech bubble region addition step adds thespeech bubble region information detected by the speech bubble regiondetection step; an image acquisition step acquiring an image file havinga high resolution image of the entire page; a speech bubble regionextraction step analyzing the image of the entire page acquired by theimage acquisition step and automatically extracts the speech bubbleregions in the image; an information file creation step creating aninformation file having described therein the speech bubble informationwhich includes a piece of speech bubble region information representinga speech bubble region extracted by the speech bubble region extractionstep; and a master data creation step creating a piece of master data ofthe digital comic, the master data including: an image file acquired bythe image acquisition step for each page of the comic; and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,which is created by the information file creation step, wherein the dataacquisition step acquires a piece of master data created by the masterdata creation step.
 20. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring a digital comic editing program causing a computer to execute: adata acquisition step to acquire a piece of master data of a digitalcomic, the master data including: an image file corresponding to eachpage of the comic, the image file having a high resolution image of theentire page; and an information file corresponding to each page or allpages of the comic, the information file having described therein apiece of text region information representing a text region of thecomic; a display control step to control a display device to display animage thereon based on the image file in the master data acquired by thedata acquisition step and to display an image representing a text regionbased on the text region information included in the information file inthe master data while superimposing the image representing the textregion on the image based on the image file; an indication step toindicate a position on the image displayed on the display device; a textregion addition step to add a new piece of text region information to aposition indicated by the indication step; a text region deletion stepto delete the text region information from the position indicated by theindication step; an editing step to update the text region informationincluded in the information file based on the text region informationadded by the text region addition step and the text region informationdeleted by the text region deletion step; a speech bubble regiondetection step detecting a piece of closed region information forenclosing a periphery of the position indicated by the indication stepas a piece of speech bubble region information, wherein the displaycontrol step controls displaying an image representing the speech bubbleregion based on the speech bubble region information detected by thespeech bubble region detection step while superimposing the imagerepresenting the speech bubble region on the image based on the imagefile, and the speech bubble region addition step adds the speech bubbleregion information detected by the speech bubble region detection step;an image acquisition step acquiring an image file having a highresolution image of the entire page; a speech bubble region extractionstep analyzing the image of the entire page acquired by the imageacquisition step and automatically extracts the speech bubble regions inthe image; an information file creation step creating an informationfile having described therein the speech bubble information whichincludes a piece of speech bubble region information representing aspeech bubble region extracted by the speech bubble region extractionstep; and a master data creation step creating a piece of master data ofthe digital comic, the master data including: an image file acquired bythe image acquisition step for each page of the comic; and aninformation file corresponding to each page or all pages of the comic,which is created by the information file creation step, wherein the dataacquisition step acquires a piece of master data created by the masterdata creation step.
 21. A non-transitory computer-readable mediumstoring a digital comic editing program causing a computer to execute: adata acquisition step to acquire a piece of master data of a digitalcomic, the master data including: an image file corresponding to eachpage of the comic, the image file having a high resolution image of theentire page; and an information file corresponding to each page or allpages of the comic, the information file having described therein apiece of region of interest information representing a region ofinterest of the comic; a display control step to control a displaydevice to display an image thereon based on the image file in the masterdata acquired by the data acquisition step and to display an imagerepresenting a region of interest based on the region of interestinformation included in the information file in the master data whilesuperimposing the image representing the region of interest on the imagebased on the image file; an indication step to indicate a position onthe image displayed on the display device; a region of interest additionstep to add a new piece of region of interest information to a positionindicated by the indication step; a region of interest deletion step todelete the region of interest information from the position indicated bythe indication step; an editing step to update a piece of region ofinterest information included in the information file based on theregion of interest information added by the region of interest additionstep and the region of interest information deleted by the region ofinterest deletion step; a speech bubble region detection step detectinga piece of closed region information for enclosing a periphery of theposition indicated by the indication step as a piece of speech bubbleregion information, wherein the display control step controls displayingan image representing the speech bubble region based on the speechbubble region information detected by the speech bubble region detectionstep while superimposing the image representing the speech bubble regionon the image based on the image file, and the speech bubble regionaddition step adds the speech bubble region information detected by thespeech bubble region detection step; an image acquisition step acquiringan image file having a high resolution image of the entire page; aspeech bubble region extraction step analyzing the image of the entirepage acquired by the image acquisition step and automatically extractsthe speech bubble regions in the image; an information file creationstep creating an information file having described therein the speechbubble information which includes a piece of speech bubble regioninformation representing a speech bubble region extracted by the speechbubble region extraction step; and a master data creation step creatinga piece of master data of the digital comic, the master data including:an image file acquired by the image acquisition step for each page ofthe comic; and an information file corresponding to each page or allpages of the comic, which is created by the information file creationstep, wherein the data acquisition step acquires a piece of master datacreated by the master data creation step.